Mr. Dayton to Mr.
Seward
No. 289.]
Paris,
March 20, 1863.
Sir: The within slip, cut from the London Daily
News, will give you all further information as to the £3,000,000 “seven
per cent. cotton loan” about to be negotiated in Europe. The chances for
speculation, the sympathy for the south, and the belief in its ultimate
success, will probably procure this loan to be taken.
The allegation is that Erlanger & Co., Frankfort, Germany, are the
principal takers; but the reliance, without doubt, is mainly upon
Liverpool, London, and Manchester. The son of Erlanger in Paris is
counted upon to get off portions of the loan here. * * * * * * *
I am your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State,
&c.
[Page 720]
[From The Daily News.]
MONEY MARKET.
Tuesday Evening.
The amount of business in the stock market to-day has again been very
limited, apart from the completion of the fortnightly settlement in
shares and foreign stocks. Speculation is checked by the uncertainty
attaching to the Polish question, or diverted to the Italian and
confederate loans and other new securities. The funds declined ⅛ per
cent. this morning, but, afterwards recovered, and closed at
yesterday’s prices. English railway stocks were rather heavy. As
regards foreign stocks, the movements were for the most part
confined to an improvement in Turkish consolidés and a decline in
Greek.
It appears that the prospectus of the confederate government loan is
to be issued to-morrow, through Messrs. John Henry Schroder &
Co., of this city, the expected formal ratification and powers from
the confederate government having arrived this day. The loan is to
consist of £3,000,000 of seven per cent. bonds, to be offered at 90
per cent. It will be specially designated a “seven per cent. cotton
loan;” and one of its peculiar features is that the bonds are to be
exchangeable against cotton, the latter being taken at the fixed
price of 6d. per pound. This arrangement is
of course designed by way of attraction to the speculative appetite,
for supposing it were possible to get the cotton away, and sell it
at Liverpool at 12d. per pound, (which is
less than half the present price,) the holder of a bond which has
cost £90 might get from £180 to £200. In every respect, therefore,
this is a very remarkable operation. The confederate government have
agreed that the cotton shall be free from any additional export
duties that may hereafter be imposed; and it is urged on behalf of
the loan that the cotton hypothecated must be the first to reach the
European market, inasmuch as the confederate government will possess
a monopoly of the means of transport to the coast. As a matter of
course, the security of the bondholders will depend entirely upon
the ability of the South to maintain its independence.
The French Protestant Church and Mr. Davis’s Confederacy.
Six hundred and eighty-nine Protestant French ministers have signed
an address, dated March 13, and attested by the reverend pastors
Grand Pierre, G. Monod, Louis Rognon, Louis Pulsford, Fred. Monod,
Eug. Bersier, to ministers of the gospel in this country, calling
upon them, by the memory of British philanthropy and British
religion, to exert themselves, that the influence of this country
may be exerted, for the liberation of the slave. They say:
“No more revolting spectacle has ever been set before the civilized
world than a confederacy, consisting mainly of Protestants, forming
itself and demanding independence, in the nineteenth century of the
Christian era, with a professed design of maintaining and
propagating slavery—a confederacy which lays down as the
corner-stone of its constitution the system of slavery as it exists
at present in the southern States—a system which may be defined
briefly as the right to treat man like cattle, and to commit
adultery and murder with impunity. Setting aside all political
considerations, can any Christian heart fail to be stirred to
indignation at hearing the chief of that confederacy answering a
decree of emancipation by an implied threat of extermination? The
triumph of such a cause would put back the progress of Christian
civilization and of humanity a whole century. It would make angels
weep in heaven, and demons rejoice in hell. It would [Page 721] enable the friends of the slave trade
and of slavery in all lands to hold up their heads, ever ready, as
they are, to reappear at the first signal in Asia, in Africa, and
even in the great cities of Europe. It would give a fatal blow to
the work of evangelical missions. And what a frightful
responsibility would rest on the church which should remain the
silent spectator of such a triumph! If there is a peaceable means of
hastening the end of the war, and of rendering its issue such as is
desired by all the friends of humanity, is it not that the sincere
Christians of Europe should give to the cause of emancipation a
powerful testimony, which would leave to those who fight for the
right of oppressing the slaves no hope of ever seeing those
Christians give them the hand of fellowship? Ministers and pastors
of all the evangelical denominations of England, Scotland, and
Ireland, it is here we need your assistance. Take the lead, and let
us call forth a great and peaceful manifestation of sympathy for the
colored race so long oppressed and debased by Christian nations. Let
us thus discourage the partisans of slavery. Let us strengthen and
encourage those who wish to abolish it, at the same time disposing
them to listen to our suggestions. It is in free England that such
manifestations can be powerful. What may we not hope for if
throughout Great Britain the voice of all the ministers of the
crucified Saviour, and in France—our voice echoing theirs—pray and
plead that soon there may no longer be in the United States a
colored man that is not free and equal with the whites? May God
grant it, and may his blessing rest alike on Great Britain and the
United States, in Christ, the true liberator!”
Since the 13th instant the number of signatures of French pastors has
been increased to seven hundred and eighty-nine.
